I turned my head to the side and squinted one eye open to see Luke sitting in a white chair on the far side of the room.
I tried to speak, but my dry mouth wouldn't allow me to. I rubbed my eyes and moved to sit up when all of a sudden, pain shot through my leg and up to my hip. I groan and laid back down.
"Take it easy, Mase."
"What the fuck are you still doing here?"
I figured he would have left after he sewed me up.
"I might be a dick, but I'm not an asshole. I wasn't going to leave you like this. I may not be an actual doctor, but I do know a cut like that," he nodded toward my leg, "could cause an infection if not treated properly."
He pulled on my arms, and I gritted my teeth as he helped me sit up.
"You cut yourself good, Mase. I had to get the bleeding to stop, then clean out the splinters of glass you had in there. I don't carry the things necessary to make sure you don't get an infection, so I wanted to make sure you didn't spike a fever or something."
I nodded, grateful to have him there.
He picked up a glass of orange juice off the side table and the two tablets he had next to it. "Take these," he stated as he handed them both to me. "I don't have anything stronger than this, so you're going to have to deal with the pain."
I took the juice and the pills from him and swallowed them down. I didn't mind the pain. That I could deal with.
Luke sat on the bed and ran a hand down his face as he yawned.
I cleared my throat. "Did you get any sleep last night?"
He turned and looked at me with a shrug. "Just a little bit, but I'm fine. I called your staff and told them not to come in tomorrow, as well. I figured you didn't want them to see you like this."
I nodded again in appreciation. "Thank you for coming last night."
"Look, man, I told you before that I can't keep doing this. I'm telling you now that if you do this to yourself again, I'm not coming, and I mean it this time." He stood up from the bed and paced a little before turning toward me again. "I don't know what the hell happened, but you need to get help, man. If you need someone to go with you or find someone, then I'll do it. I just hate seeing you like this. That," he pointed, "isn't normal."
I stared at the comforter and hated myself in that moment. I wasn't only fucking up my life; I was fucking up the lives of the people around me, too.
I raised a hand in defeat. I knew he was right. I needed help, but I had things I needed to do before I did anything else. I'd spent so much time focused on other things beside myself that it seemed like I'd wasted most of my life.
I knew I couldn't keep living this way. I needed to do something, but first, I needed to make a phone call.
Twenty-five
Emmalynn
Monday morning rolled around and I couldn’t stop thinking about Mason. I’d spent all day Saturday and Sunday in a dreamland I didn’t want to leave.
I’d met the girls for coffee Saturday morning and let everything out about how I felt for him. I’d never experienced it before, with anyone else, not even the beginning of the relationship with Tim. I couldn’t explain it to them. It was like something had always been missing and I never knew it, until I had it in my hands. It was something I didn’t want to ever let go.
Waking in his arms then having to leave was torture. I’d wanted to call and cancel the coffee date, but I didn’t want to seem clingy. Everything was still so new and I didn’t want to scare him off, even though I didn’t think it was possible. I could tell by the way he looked at me that he had the same deep feelings I had.
The way he’d stared at me with adoration in the shower Friday night was enough to have me swooning for a week. I couldn’t have wiped the smile off my face if I’d tried, and the girls took definite notice.
At that very moment, I was smiling.
I was bummed that I didn’t hear from him on Sunday, but I was sure he was busy. He did have classes he had to get ready for, and I tried to busy myself with reading and catching up on all of my classes.
Mel also informed me that Quinn was moving in with her boyfriend so I’d finally have my own room to sleep in. It was exciting news, although I was sad to see Quinn go. It’d be nice to share a space with just Mel and me again.
“Good morning,” Brian greeted as he settled into his seat.
“Morning,” I smiled.
“How was your weekend?” he asked, starting to pull things out of his bag.
“Mine was great.” Erotic, sexual, pleasing, and orgasmic were all the things running through my mind that I couldn’t say. “How was yours?”
He sighed. “My parents had a get-together this weekend and tried to set me up with the daughter of a friend of theirs. It was disastrous.” He laughed.
I giggled at his facial expression. “How so?”
He quirked a brow. “She had a huge gap in her front teeth, she snorted when she laughed, and she had a lazy eye.”
I practically guffawed.